That is, they will often either drift between the first, fourth and fifth chord of a major scale (common in pop/rock music), or between the second, fifth and first chord (more common in jazz). BECOME FAMILIAR WITH COMMON CHORD PROGRESSIONSĪ large majority of the songs you listen to will rely on some variation of a II, V, I (2, 5, 1) chord progression or I, IV, V (1, 4, 5). This means that if you practice singing along with an awareness of the note names you’re aiming for, you’re going to start building the skills you need to be able to recognise notes by ear- just by singing along! 8. When we sing along with the notes we play (even if you think you’re a terrible singer), our brains are going to an extended effort to process the pitch of the note we hear so as to accurately repeat it back with the voice. I’m probably the first to admit that every time someone told me to sing along while playing the guitar they would receive a less than enthusiastic response. HINT: The notes used in the melody are often taken from the chord itself (with a couple of exceptions), so start with those and then experiment from there. The first is to work out the root note, identify the chord (or google the chords if you find this too hard at first) and then use your knowledge of what chord is supporting the melody to work out what notes are being used. There are two ways of doing this, depending on your preference. Start small by aiming for a part of the song that has a well- defined melodic arc (the chorus is usually your best bet) and try to identify each note on your guitar. From here you can begin to try and figure it out. Grab your guitar and start listening to a song with a relatively simple melody. Once you’ve found the root note, you’ve also put yourself in a good position to find the chord, which means you’re one step away from being able to figure out the melody to the song.

This follows on from the root note exercise. Take a look at the online music intervals tutor which listens to intervals or watch this video below: It might take some time to get used to, but there are plenty of resources online ready to help you out. As intervals tend to form a fundamental part of many melodies, knowing what each one sounds like will put you well on the way to better identifying the note sequences you hear in songs. Basically, it’s training yourself to recognise the relationship between two notes of a scale when they’re played one after the other.

Interval training is super important for any musician trying to develop their aural skills. Bonus: it will also help you start to navigate the fretboard a lot quicker, so it’s a win-win really! This will help your brain begin to associate a certain note name with its pitch sound on the guitar. While you’re playing it, try saying each note name out loud. Start with playing the blues guitar with the 5 Pentatonic scale patterns, it’s really and fun to play. PLAY SCALESĭo this as often as possible and learn as many scales as possible. Regularly practising your theory – especially the stuff regarding how notes work together to form chords, and how scales and modes work- will give you regular interaction with (and allow you to develop a better understanding of) all of the sounds you’re planning on identifying by ear, which puts you in a really good position to throw out the tab/manuscripts for a bit to start further developing your listening skills later on. Although some people naturally have a great ear, most of us will need all the help we can get to become familiar with the various rules that form the basis of most of the music we listen to.

What does this have to do with ear training, you ask? Quite a lot actually. BECOME FAMILIAR WITH COMMON CHORD PROGRESSIONS

Jazz chord aural training